Political conditionality of public aid to the development of Western partners in Africa : analysis of French actions in sub-Saharan Africa ; Conditionnalité politique de l'aide publique au développement des partenaires occidentaux à l'Afrique : analyse des actions francaises en Afrique subsaharienne.

Made in against the international backdrop of democratization and aspiration for the freedom of sub-Saharan African peoples, the landmark decision of the La Baule summit of June 1990 was France's commitment to conditioning its ODA to the democratic efforts of sub-Saharan African countries. Paris took this decision with a view to: 1. Encouraging the democratic opening of African States as a prerequisite for peace and economic development.2. Defending and promoting values of liberal democracy that she considers universal. On the other hand, the flagrance of the relationship between democracy and development is relative. Cultural relativism often poses a problem to the principle of the universality of democratic values and human rights. Moreover, African potentates invoke cultural relativism to exonerate their bad democratic faith. Despite a trend towards the normalization of electoral processes on the continent, a lot of work is yet to be done to establish genuine Rule of Law in sub-Saharan Africa. As regards its implementation, France’s poltitical conditionnality strategy pursuing this objective in sub-Saharan Africa is not always true to the spirit of La Baule. The personalized state relations, the primacy of the geostrategic interests of France, etc., often get the upper hand over the democratic ideal of La Baule. France remains very present in sub-Saharan Africa where its multinationals are very strongly settled. France has a hold over the control levers of the economy through its multinationals like Bolloré, Orange and Areva. However, beyond this appearance, there is a regression of French influence on the continent. This decline is linked to endogenous dynamics such as national opinions and political leadership seemingly aware of the geostrategic stakes that now represent sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, there are exogenous dynamics, particularly related to the breakthrough of China, whose strategic orientation in its African policy undermines the effectiveness of France's political conditionality ; Tenu ...